Resources and notes to assist students of 2107GFS-Visual Story, semester 2, 2012, and 2013. All blog images and posts are copyright 2012 the respective copyright holders, and for academic use only.

“[A good artist is] one with imagination and the ability to tell a good story. How well a man draws cuts no ice with me, if what he’s trying to express comes out vague and choppy.” ‐ Jack Kirby

(Sherman cited in Morrow (ED.) 2004, (vol.1) p. 181).

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Week 10 Clip recap

Only one clip this week, as you remember, we had Andi take the lecture on Layouts and Pre-Viz. As this was her job in Animation studios for many years, it was a no-brainer, and awesome, to have her speak about the layout department tasks in the pre-production process. Thanks Andi :D

This clip or two that we watched is one part culmination of the lessons we have covered thus far, plus an into into next week's lecture on 'Editing'. A particular point that I want you to remember (which I brought up in class) was that this biopic/drama still utilizes composing theories that some people would normally mistaken as action film type shots (typically since we've seen examples used in 'The Matrix', 'Casino Royale' or even 'Ben 10' cartoons for instance). Make no mistake, you can "jazz" up your "talking head"/exposition/ drama scenes with compositional concepts we spoke of back in the early part of the semester.

The use of the extreme close up, edited with fragments of events of Ali's past and some key events leading up to the Liston fight conveys to the audience that we are "seeing" Ali's inner thoughts as he focuses on the speedbag.

Note the circular compositon, and the "fanning" of the men surrounding
Clay/Ali in the shot, from far left foreground to far right, with Ali the focal point
(not just "standing vertical" in shot.)

Another shot, where Depth of field, composition and the direction of the
people's heads (all looking towards Clay/Ali) lead the eye to the focal point.

Have a look at the lecture slides from week 8, here's an example or two of theory in practice :)

"Beyond the standard point of Interest" (Icon)
In this case, Ali's famous footwork signifies his entry into the ring,
rather than a medium or full body shot.

This clip misses out on the "Clay v. Liston" Weigh in, which is a scene I like as despite the two characters being in the midst of a huge room full of people, the focus is purely on them, and the frames are composed in a way that the focus is always on the main two, whether it's through depth of field, negative space or framing Clay/Ali and Liston between the shoulders and heads of the people around them. The "blurring" of foreground heads and/or background people immediately draws your eye to the focal point of the screen. Could only find an Italian version of this scene, but no matter. The story is clear through camera shots, posing/acting and editing.

Anyways, gotta run, will make a post tomorrow showing some examples to clarify what is to be produced for the final assessment.